Theophilus ben Ananus

Theophilus (Hebrew: תפלוס בר חנן)[1] was the High Priest in the Second Temple in Jerusalem from 37 to 41 CE according to Josephus's Antiquities of the Jews.

[4] In its favor is the fact that in Luke Theophilus is called by the title Most Excellent (kratiste), indicating he held a political office like high priest, the ethnarch under the Romans.

The honorific, kratiste, would also provide evidence that the Gospel of Luke was written during his high priesthood, 37 to 41 CE.

The period coincides with the reign of Gaius Caligula, his persecution and planned ethnocide of the Jews and Nazarenes, and the desecration of the Temple with his giant, idolatrous statue.

In addition, his son Matthias served as the next to the last High Priest before the destruction of the Temple by the Romans.